Frequently Asked Questions
about Near Intents

Near Intents is an intent-based cross-chain trading platform built on NEAR Protocol. Instead of executing a swap directly, you submit a signed "intent" — a declaration of what you want (for example, swap 100 USDC for NEAR) — and a network of professional solvers competes to fill your order at the best possible price.

The process works in three steps:

• Submit: You sign and broadcast your intent to the Near Intents network without giving up custody of your funds.
• Compete: Solvers analyze your intent and compete to offer the best execution price, routing liquidity across multiple chains and DEXes.
• Settle: The winning solver executes the trade on-chain. All settlement is verifiable and trustless on NEAR Protocol.

This model delivers better prices, lower slippage, and MEV protection compared to traditional automated market makers.

Near Intents supports cross-chain swaps across a wide range of networks. Currently supported blockchains include:

• NEAR Protocol (native)
• Ethereum (ETH, ERC-20 tokens)
• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Solana (SOL, SPL tokens)
• Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, and more EVM chains

Supported assets include major stablecoins (USDC, USDT, DAI), NEAR, ETH, BTC, SOL, and hundreds of DeFi tokens. The solver network continuously expands liquidity sources, so new assets and chains are regularly added.

Visit the main trading interface to see the complete and up-to-date list of supported pairs.

Connecting your wallet to Near Intents is straightforward. Click the "Sign in" button in the trading interface. You can connect using:

• NEAR Wallets: MyNearWallet, NEAR Mobile, Meteor Wallet, Ledger (via NEAR)
• Ethereum Wallets: MetaMask, WalletConnect, Coinbase Wallet, Rainbow
• Other: Any wallet compatible with WalletConnect v2

After connecting, you can deposit assets to your Near Intents account to begin trading. Deposits are secured by NEAR Protocol's smart contracts and remain under your control at all times.

Near Intents uses a competitive fee model designed to minimize trading costs. Here is how fees work:

• Protocol fee: A small, transparent protocol fee is embedded in the quoted swap output. This is disclosed before you confirm any trade.
• Solver spread: Solvers may capture a marginal spread as part of their execution — the competitive auction format keeps this spread as small as possible.
• Gas fees: NEAR transaction costs are extremely low (fractions of a cent). Cross-chain settlements may incur gas on destination chains, which is factored into your quoted price.
• No hidden fees: The price you see in the quote is the price you get. There are no surprise slippage events or sandwich attacks on Near Intents.

Thanks to the intent-based model, Near Intents is typically more cost-efficient than routing through multiple DEX hops manually.

Settlement speed depends on the chains involved. For most swaps, you can expect the following:

• NEAR-to-NEAR swaps: Near-instant, typically 1–2 seconds.
• NEAR-to-EVM (e.g., Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum): Usually 30–60 seconds, depending on network congestion.
• BTC-involved swaps: May take several minutes due to Bitcoin block confirmation times.

You can monitor the status of your swap in the History tab at any time. Near Intents provides real-time status updates for every transaction from intent submission to final settlement.

The OTC (Over-The-Counter) feature in Near Intents allows you to create a custom trade order with a specific counterparty rather than relying on the open solver network. This is ideal for:

• Large trades where you want to avoid market impact
• Bilateral deals between known parties (e.g., institutional traders or DeFi protocols)
• Private settlements at a pre-agreed rate

To use OTC trading, navigate to the OTC tab in the trading interface and create an order. You can share the order link with your counterparty, who fills it on-chain. All OTC settlements go through the same secure, non-custodial NEAR smart contracts as regular swaps.

Near Intents is built with a security-first architecture on NEAR Protocol. Key security properties include:

• Non-custodial: Your assets are always under your control. Near Intents never takes custody of your funds.
• On-chain settlement: All trades settle on-chain and are publicly verifiable. There is no off-chain execution risk.
• MEV protection: The intent model prevents front-running and sandwich attacks that are common on traditional AMMs.
• Smart contract audits: The Near Intents smart contracts have been reviewed by independent security auditors.
• NEAR Protocol security: NEAR uses a Proof-of-Stake consensus with Nightshade sharding, providing robust economic security for all on-chain operations.

Always ensure you are accessing Near Intents through the official domain and that your wallet confirms the correct contract addresses before signing any transactions.

Solvers are professional market participants who compete to fulfill user intents in Near Intents. When you submit an intent, solvers:

• Analyze the requested trade and source liquidity from DEXes, bridges, and their own inventory
• Submit a binding quote specifying how much output they can deliver
• The best quote (highest output for the user) wins the auction and the solver executes the trade
• Solvers are incentivized by capturing the difference between their sourcing cost and the amount they quoted

The solver competition model is what makes Near Intents powerful: solvers constantly optimize routing across dozens of liquidity venues across multiple blockchains. You benefit from institutional-grade execution without having to understand the underlying complexity.

Anyone can become a solver on Near Intents by integrating with the intent protocol. See the developer documentation for more information.

To trade on Near Intents, you first deposit assets into your Near Intents account (a NEAR smart contract wallet). Here is how:

• Deposit: Click the Deposit button at the top of the page. Select the asset and chain you want to deposit from, and follow the wallet prompts. Your assets will appear in your Near Intents account once the transaction confirms.
• Withdraw: Navigate to the Account page and select the asset you wish to withdraw. Choose your destination address and chain, then confirm the withdrawal in your wallet.

Deposits and withdrawals are processed through audited NEAR smart contracts. Your funds remain non-custodial throughout — only you can authorize movements from your account.

All your swaps, deposits, and withdrawals are recorded and accessible through the History tab in the Near Intents interface. Each entry shows:

• Transaction type (swap, deposit, withdrawal, OTC)
• Assets and amounts involved
• Timestamp and status (pending, completed, failed)
• Links to block explorers for full on-chain verification (NEAR Explorer, Etherscan, etc.)

You can also verify any Near Intents transaction independently using NEAR Explorer at nearblocks.io by searching your wallet address.